7 January, 2004

Misspelled Words From Dr. Language

Dr. Language has provided a one-stop cure for all your spelling
ills. Here are the 100 words most often misspelled ('misspell' is one of them).
Each word has a mnemonic pill with it and, if you swallow it, it will help you
to remember how to spell the word. Master the orthography of the words on this
page and reduce the time you spend searching dictionaries by 50%.

The Hard Sell For Girl Scout Cookies

Cookie
season is only a few weeks away and some Girl Scouts are being trained not to
take no for an answer this year. To prepare for the two-month season, which
begins Jan. 17, a few dozen scouts gathered Sunday at a church in Plymouth for
the second annual cookie-sale workshop.

And they even train these kids how to reply to the "I already bought some"
excuse -- which is the one I always use.

Cookie sellers were coached to appeal to people's patriotism:
You don't have to eat the cookies, you can donate them to troops overseas.

Microsoft's Anti-Linux Ads

Open-source advocates are crying foul over a new ad campaign
from Microsoft that claims that Windows-based systems cost less in the long run
than Linux-based systems.

Ads for the campaign, which were unveiled on Monday and will
appear in online and print publications, refer potential customers to a section
of the Microsoft website where they can "get the facts" on Windows and Linux.
There, visitors can view what Microsoft calls "independent analyses" of the two
operating systems.

How independent are these analyses?

Of the eight research reports featured on the campaign website,
five are clearly marked as having been commissioned by Microsoft; and one was
written by Microsoft itself, but contains an attached audit from an independent
firm. It's unclear whether the last two were sponsored.

Posted on 7 January, 2004

Antique Cop Shots

Things Creationists Hate

The following is not meant to be an all-inclusive list, nor is
it meant to characterize the views of all creationists. But there are certainly
some, if not most, who can be so characterized. The main objects of my satire,
for so it is intended, are the young-Earth, biblical-literalist types, although
other genera of creationists may detect some of their views skewered here also.

Celebrity Caricatures

Caricature artists often exaggerate prominent facial features
to make their subjects more recognizable, and also, funnier looking. It's an
easy laugh, to be sure, but it's fun. In this contest, you will enlarge or
shrink a *facial feature* on any celebrity, preferably to amusing proportions.

Here's Donald Rumsfeld.

Posted on 7 January, 2004

A Tale Of Two Body Shops

Body Shop #1
This place had a skuzzy-looking office, with photos of smashed cars on the
wall. The guy I spoke with seemed distracted and hurried. He spent about 45
seconds looking at the damage, and then sat down at his computer to prepare the
estimate. In the meantime he answered about six phone calls. Eventually he
handed me the estimate sheet: $643. I asked how long it would take, and he said
I'd have to leave the car there for 4-6 hours.

Body Shop #2
This place had a very nice office, with a receptionist. She paged the owner, and
he came out to inspect the vehicle. He was a pleasant guy, and he spent about 10
minutes giving it a very thorough examination. We went back to his office (no
crashed car photos) and he prepared the estimate. He even made a phone call to
verify that the bumper was the correct one. He explained how the estimating
software works, and gave me some insights into various insurance companies.
Total cost: $540, and he could do it as soon as tomorrow. It would take about an
hour.

Guess which one gets my business?

Posted on 7 January, 2004

A Gzip Experiment

...What if I told you that you can third your content easily
with no work on your part whatsoever? It sounds like a pitch I might get in a
lovely unsolicited email. The secret lies in the fact that every major browser
of the past 5 years supports transparently decompressing content on the fly.

The trick is to use some simple PHP code at the top of the page. This code
compresses the content using gzip. But before sending the compressed content, it
checks the header to make sure that the browser can uncompress it.

I made a copy of my main page that uses this technique.
Please try it, and let me
know (in the Comments) if you notice any speed difference. If so, I'll make the
change to all of my pages. This technique seems to offer the best of both
worlds: faster load times and reduced bandwidth. The difference, if any, will
probably be most noticeable by dial-up users and those with slow connections.

Here's a site that lets you
enter a URL, and it will tell you if the document uses gzip encoded content.
You'll find, for example, that Google and Slashdot use it.

Posted on 7 January, 2004

Steve McCurry Photography

Steve McCurry, recognized universally as one of today's finest
image makers, has won many of photography's top awards. Best known for his
evocative color photography, McCurry, in the finest documentary tradition,
captures the essence of human struggle and joy. Member of Magnum Photos since
1986, McCurry has searched and found the unforgettable; many of his images have
become modern icons.

I commend Steve on his no-nonsense Web site. Not a trace of Flash to be
found!

Opt Out With Confidence?

For a long time, conventional wisdom was to never click on a
link that purportedly offered a chance to reject further unsolicited commercial
e-mail.

"You'll just be verifying that they've reached an active e-mail
address," the warning went. I've offered that advice myself, and followed it
assiduously. It's time to get over it, for two reasons.

One is that the law's intent is to give us a genuine
opportunity to say, "Enough!" CAN-SPAM requires that every commercial e-mail
include a working opt-out link. And it requires the sender - that is, the person
or company whose product is advertised - to honor your choice within 10 days.

The other is that spammers weren't identifying active addresses
that way, anyway - they had more sophisticated tools at their disposal.

Apparently, he's serious. He concludes the article with:

"Opt out with confidence."

I wonder how many people are actually going to read their spam and
follow the opt-out instructions? Not me. I have absolutely no confidence
in the CAN-SPAM act.

Posted on 7 January, 2004

George-In-The-Box

George-in-the-Box... $30 will
get you a Jack-in-the-box toy that features George W. Bush.

Drawing On Acid

These 9 drawings were done by an artist under the influence of
LSD -- part of a test conducted by the US government during it's dalliance with
psychotomimetic drugs in the late 1950's. The artist was given a dose of LSD 25
and free access to an activity box full of crayons and pencils. His subject is
the medico that jabbed him.

The drawing shown here was done about six hours after the first dose.

Posted on 7 January, 2004

CABUM

We are a group of citizens from all walks of life who share a
common realization and thus a common goal: the Moon is our enemy and must be
destroyed. We are dedicated to the pursuit of this goal via lobbying efforts,
education of the public, and independent scientific endeavors.